Free Republic

Gas-tax repeal backers ought to highlight the reason for California’s wretched infrastructure: the outsized power of the state’s public-employee unions. California conservatives thought they were riding the cusp of a populist wave when they qualified Proposition 6 for the November ballot. If passed, that statewide initiative would repeal the Democrats’ cynical and unnecessary increase in gas taxes and vehicle-license fees. As I argued last week, the governor and his allies always shortchange infrastructure funding as they spend wildly on new social programs, then issue an ultimatum to the state’s taxpayers: Raise taxes on yourself yet again or we won’t fix...

CHICAGO (AP) — Officials with Chicago Public Schools said Tuesday they're ready to cut $100 million from school budgets and force teachers to pay more pension costs after their union rejected the latest contract offer, ratcheting up the tone of contentious negotiations that have lasted over a year. Schools CEO Forrest Claypool called the union's rejection "disheartening" and cost-cutting efforts — including potential layoffs of support staff like teachers' aides — necessary without a deal. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis shot back, calling the announcement the "latest act of war" and saying teachers in the nation's third-largest district would...

Clark County's largest employee union is taking the county to court in effort to overturn an arbitrator's ruling that eliminates hundreds of millions of dollars in longevity pay for future hires. The Service Employees International Union Local 1107 filed a motion to vacate the arbitrator's contract award this week in Clark County District Court. To prevail, the union would need a judge to find that the arbitrator disregarded state law when issuing his final, binding decision. The arbitrator, Ross Runkel, also gave county employees 4.5 percent in retroactive pay increases in his Aug. 25 award. The key sticking point, however,...

The Wisconsin governor who's known for taking on unions in his home state is holding the event Monday afternoon at XTreme Manufacturing. He said he'll discuss his plan to transfer power from union bosses to taxpayers. He said the strategy includes preventing the government from deducting union dues from federal employees' paychecks. Las Vegas is home to powerful labor groups, including the Culinary Union that represents some 55,000 casino workers.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's top court weighed the budget repercussions of ruling on a pension dispute between Gov. Chris Christie and public workers' unions on Wednesday while one justice wondered if the state had engaged in a "bait and switch." The state Supreme Court probed whether the state has a contractual obligation to pay what it agreed to in a 2011 pension overhaul law and tried to get lawyers from both sides to explore whether such a finding would represent an overstepping of the courts' role and put it in the middle of the state budget process every...

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas high school teacher who recently won his job back in arbitration after he was fired several years ago has been suspended. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports 54-year-old John Mannion was sent home from Bonanza High School on Friday after officials learned he faces felony drug trafficking charges. He was arrested last July on suspicion of selling the prescription painkiller Oxycontin to an undercover detective.

Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind - Mallory Factor Book Review: Shadowbosses by Mallory Factor and Elizabeth Factor Forbes.com 8/26/2012

CARSON CITY — Faced with rising costs, Gov. Brian Sandoval is backing off his promise to undo pay cuts imposed on state employees last year. Gerald Gardner, his chief of staff, said the governor has issued orders to agency heads to continue the reductions in the proposed 2014-15 budget. Gardner told the Nevada Appeal that Sandoval hasn't given up on efforts to undo the work furloughs, pay cuts, and suspension of merit and longevity pay imposed on state workers.

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- A pay raise dispute between the Washoe County and its Sheriff's Deputies has come to a close. Sheriff Deputies had requested an increase in pay after the county cut benefits and 51 paid positions last year. Arbitrators Thursday advised in favor of the deputies, saying that their pay was behind national standards. The County was advised to give a three percent pay increase.

......A Chicago Teachers Union news release late Saturday said the agreement includes: ◆ Raises of 3 percent, 2 percent and 2 percent over the next three years, with the option to extend the deal to four years “by mutual agreement” with another 3 percent raise. ◆ Preservation of extra “step’’ increases based on experience, with new increases in the three highest steps. ◆ The hiring of 600 additional teachers in art, music, physical education,world languages and other so-called “special’’classes. ◆ The requirement that teachers be allowed to “follow their students” to other schools if the teachers school is subject to...

Terry List, a teacher in Saginaw Township, Mich., has a depressing lesson for her students: “I would not recommend to my pupils to become a teacher in Michigan.” What’s discouraging her? A proposed pension-reform bill in Michigan would derail her plans to retire — at age 47. After these rapacious reforms, List would have to work another 16 years, to age 63, in order to earn her retiree health-care benefits. “I understand we have to tighten our belts,” she laments, “but we don’t have to use a tourniquet and cut off the blood supply entirely.” Under the reforms, such a...

Despite being criticized for a potential payout of more than $200,000 to retiring Henderson Police Chief Jutta Chambers through the city’s Voluntary Employee Severance Program, city officials remain steadfast employee buyouts will result in savings for the city in the long run. “The main objective of the VESP is to have employees take that buyout and then not fill those positions,” said Mayor Andy Hafen. “We realize that that’s not going to happen in every single case. In the case of Chief Chambers, obviously the only cost benefit that we might get is that the next chief may not be...

But when I learn that a cultural affairs manager at Las Vegas City Hall quietly received a nearly 20 percent raise during this recession to a new salary of $107,000, I fear my goodwill is misplaced. When I learn that four dozen other employees also received pay increases as the city demanded concessions and cut services — a total cost of $265,000 — I wonder if these people have any sense at all. And when I learn that the average salary of those who received raises was — please put down any sharp objects — $77,557 — and that the...

When we read recent reports that many Clark County government workers were receiving salary increases, we had one thought: Seriously? Yes, seriously. As the Las Vegas Sun’s Joe Schoenmann has reported, Clark County has been working with unions representing its employees to try to whittle down costs and has received concessions from several unions over the past few years. However, many county employees have still seen their wages increase over the past three years. (You can find coverage here.) For example, county officials said members of the Service International Employees Union received average wage increases of 12.6 percent over that...

A District Court judge on Friday halted, at least temporarily, the impending layoffs of almost 40 North Las Vegas Police officers. The 90-day injunction was in response to the city’s plan to reduce its police force to shore up its dire financial situation. Dozens of union officers received pink slips last month. Layoffs officially were to begin today, but the North Las Vegas Police Officers Association sued the city, asking a judge to intervene. The case has been in front of District Judge Nancy Allf, who today issued the preliminary injunction.

ORANGE — A dozen Town Hall clerical and custodial employees won the right to get coffee and milk paid for by taxpayers, and the town must reinstate dress-down Fridays, officials said this week. Recently, the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations sided with United Public Service Employees Union Local 424-Unit 21, saying the town violated the Municipal Employees Relations Act by retaliating against the union for attending and making certain comments at a Jan. 26, 2009, Board of Finance meeting.

A Dane County judge this morning issued a temporary restraining order requiring the Capitol to be reopened. The building was under tight security this morning with public access limited. The order from Judge Daniel Moeser requires the Capitol to be open during business hours and "at times when governmental matters, such as hearings, listening sessions and court arguments are being conducted." The AFL-CIO, AFSCME and other unions sued after the Walker administration began restricting access to the Capitol. Moeser's order notes it is in effect until a hearing can be scheduled on the matter. UPDATE: 11:17 a.m. -- The Department...

Saturday's speakers rally larger crowd than last week's Star power invigorated a massive crowd of union supporters who turned out cold and snowy Saturday at the Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that would strip most public unions of most of their collective bargaining rights. The crowd easily eclipsed the estimated 70,000 that protested at the Capitol last Saturday. Protestors filled the lawns flanking both sides of the Capitol's State Street entrance for nearly the entire block. The crowd extended several blocks down State Street and the street surrounding the Capitol square was entirely filled with a...

As states struggle with enormous deficits and exploding pension costs, some analysts are urging Congress to enact a law enabling states to declare bankruptcy the way municipalities can under Chapter 9 of the federal bankruptcy code. This is a bad idea. A state bankruptcy provision could create more problems than it solves. Bankruptcy proponents understandably worry that states such as California and Illinois are so deep in the hole they may end up petitioning Congress for federal relief. To forestall this possibility, the argument goes, even the threat of bankruptcy would give governors and legislators a powerful new weapon for...

Doug Ross has a useful and concise history of public sector unions that demonstrates with undeniable clarity why public sector unions should never have been allowed to organize in the first place. Unions can make sense in the private sector where the purpose of an enterprise is to provide products and services needed by people who can pay for them and in the process allow the firm to generate a profit to be shared in mutually agreeable proportions among owner and employees. The profit is the essential measure of whether the enterprise is viable. But in the public sector, there...